Teachers and Caregivers as Community Leaders
Have you thought of yourself yet as a potential community education leader? For most beginning teachers, it seems far too early, but your community may well be counting on you. In a 2010 national ranking of careers that inspire confidence in leadership, education placed in the top 10, coming in seventh behind military, medical, charity, Supreme Court, local governments, and religion (Center for Public Leadership, 2010).
In many fields today, leadership studies and training courses are finding that the longheld American vision of leadership as the individualistic, lone, brave cowboy is not the most effective one. In actuality, the more effective model is group- and relationshipbased. Sometimes known as connected leadership, “it’s about letting even people without positions of authority assert themselves as leaders when their skills . . . are called for” (Moore, 2011, p. 25). This is the kind of leadership that people in education, particularly early education, seem well suited for, given the relationship-based institutions they are attached to.
In the field of early childhood education, the importance of leadership has been explained well in this statement from a Missouri group promoting such leadership:
Across our states a heightened interest in children’s early experiences is drawing more scrutiny, demand for accountability, and expectations that we will deliver promised results. Now more than ever, our field must proclaim a clear message about who we are, what we can offer, and what the public can expect from us. This takes leadership. (Abel, Mauzy, Thornburg, & Heger, 2008, p. 87)
Beginning teachers will most likely find themselves part of leadership teams rather than needing to strike out on their own. Connecting with organizations such as those described in this chapter will offer opportunities to serve on boards and committees or to work on projects together. Bringing the community to the school or, conversely, sharing the school with the community is one way for the whole institution to take community leadership. One writer suggests that, “schools can be very appropriate centers for building community spirit by offering . . . meeting space and adult education classes, as well as other personal and social development services. Partnerships between schools and local [businesses] also can be an important source of resources, energy and good will” (Kelley-Laine, 2002, p. 112).